Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac 1993 September/September 93.iso/Community/BBS/BBS Networks/Fidonet/What is IXgate

Text File | 1991-10-28 | 20.8 KB | 463 lines | [TEXT/R*ch]

   User guide for IXgate - the Internet to Microcomputer networks gateway

                            23rd September, 1991

                           What is IXgate, anyway?

  IXgate is both a piece of software and a physical entity. The  entity  is
  an  operational gateway run by Nick Andrew and Larry Lewis to effectively
  link Fidonet and other microcomputer networks to the Internet. We do this
  to  enhance  the  intangible  skill and knowledge transfers which is made
  possible by computer networking. The IXgate software performs  the  func-
  tions of general USENET and Echomail distribution as well as the particu-
  lar conversions required by a gateway.

  IXgate provides the following four basic services:

      USENET News to Echomail
      Echomail to USENET News
      Internet Mail to Netmail
      Netmail to Internet Mail

  The above services can be utilized by other Fidonet  technology  networks
  and similar Microcomputer networks (such as GT-Net) when a gateway system
  is in place to link those networks. That  is,  the  messages  can  travel
  through  two  conversions  and arrive essentially intact. And more impor-
  tantly, for messages returned to USENET or Internet, the IXgate  software
  has  been designed to allow this through-transition to occur automatical-
  ly, with all necessary conversions.

  From the point of view of a microcomputer network, IXgate is a convenient
  and  cheap method of accessing a skills and knowledge base which can only
  be achieved through a worldwide network of professional  research  estab-
  lishments, government, and industry.

  But first, a definition of the terms ...

                                 Definitions

  This document is best understood  by  the  reader  with  some  networking
  knowledge.  In the absence of such knowledge, these definitions may prove
  useful.

                                   USENET

  USENET is a meta-network. That is,  it  utilises  the  facilities  of  an
  underlying  network  in  order  to  transport  messages efficiently. This
  underlying network might be ACSnet, Internet, UUCP,  Fidonet,  BITNET  or
  any of the many other networks in use today. So what then does USENET do?
  USENET is an open forum for the public dissemination of  any  information
  which  can  be  stored  on a computer. This information usually takes the
  form of text messages, but it can also be source code, binary  (runnable)
  programs, PostScript printer files, graphic pictures, etc... Binary files
  are encoded into text messages using a program such as uuencode.

  USENET consists of a collection of "newsgroups", each one  devoted  to  a
  particular  topic.  Messages placed in a newsgroup are distributed to all
  other sites which receive the newsgroup, except for the following: USENET
  has a mechanism to limit the propagation of messages to particular organ-
  izational or geographic boundaries. The IXgate does not utilize this  fa-
  cility when converting to/from Echomail.

  As mentioned, USENET is an open forum. All messages are public, they  can
  be read by anybody.  In USENET, there is no concept of a private message.
  Additionally, there is no concept of "To:" in messages. All messages  are
  monologues which refer back to previous messages through ordinary message
  quoting. Discussions only of interest to two participants are  best  car-
  ried on through private mail. There is no such thing as E-mail in USENET.
  But the underlying network usually has an E-mail service. So most  USENET
  newsreaders  have  an interface to the Unix Mail program to allow private
  replies to a message to go through E-mail.

  The only restricted newsgroups  are  known  as  'moderated';  The  USENET
  software  sends  all  submissions as private mail to the moderator of the
  group, who then edits, rearranges or collects articles  into  digests  to
  post to the newsgroup.

  USENET crosses network boundaries through gateways to link many thousands
  of  computers into a worldwide news network.  USENET is very loosely cou-
  pled - there is no formal mechanism to join, and from  an  administrative
  sense USENET is an anarchy, with little control over the actions of indi-
  viduals except through the sheer  volume  of  disapproval  which  can  be
  levelled at offensive individuals.

                                  Internet

  The Internet is a conglomeration of thousands of organisational  networks
  worldwide.  Sponsored  by the US National Science Foundation, the charter
  of the Internet is to support the research  activities  of  Universities.
  This charter may be interpreted broadly, and so many commercial organisa-
  tions have become linked to the Internet. It is mostly based around dedi-
  cated  leased  lines or high-speed (64 Kbps - 2 Mbps) links, and the dom-
  inant protocols in use are called  TCP/IP,  which  allow  functions  like
  point-to-point  mail  delivery, remote login, and high volume remote file
  transfers. For example file transfers from  overseas  Internet  sites  in
  Australia  outside  prime  time can average speeds of 20 Kbps through the
  packet-switched networks.  The Australian arm of the Internet is known as
  AARNet,  which  provides  the high-speed links to Australian Universities
  and also allows 3rd party organisations to participate in  Internet  mail
  for  $1000  p.a.,  or  $400 p.a.  through a deal with the Australian Unix
  Users Group (AUUG). Please note that the IXgate is a participant in  this
  deal, and it costs money to run.

                           Microcomputer networks

  Are the networks to which IXgate addresses itself.  This  is  principally
  Fidonet  itself. However the IXgate does not limit itself to this, we are
  interested in _all_ Microcomputer based networks.

                         Fidonet technology networks

  These are Microcomputer networks which utilise the technology (the proto-
  cols  and  software)  of the Fidonet network, but are not part of Fidonet
  and thus are not subject to its rules and standards.  The  IXgate  itself
  can  be  considered a Fidonet-like network and as such is not governed by
  Fidonet in any way.

                                   Fidonet

  A worldwide network of Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs), principally made up
  of microcomputers running MS-DOS and Fidonet compatible software (such as
  Opus, Fido, SEAdog, TBBS and Quickbbs).  A computer in the  Fidonet  net-
  work is either a node or a point.  A node is most commonly a BBS support-
  ing several (hundred) users, whereas a point typically supports only  one
  or a handful of users.

  Fidonet's structure is hierarchical, and consists of zones,  nets,  nodes
  and  points.   A Zone identifies a large geographical area.  For example,
  Zone 1 refers to North America and Canada.  Zone 2 refers to Europe.  And
  Zone  3  is Australia.  Each Zone is made up of several Nets.  A Net is a
  group of BBSs which are usually physically close  together,  administered
  by  a  Net Host, who provides basic Fidonet services to the several Nodes
  who make up the Net.  And every  Node  in  Fidonet  (each  computer)  may
  choose  to  support one or more Points. Points are typically single-user,
  non-BBS systems.

                                  Echomail

  Echomail is Fidonet's public conferencing system.  Messages  placed  into
  an  Echomail  conference  are echoed (distributed) to other participating
  sites.  Messages usually are addressed  to  somebody's  name,  so  public
  conversations  can  take place. Echoes (as echomail conferences are popu-
  larly called) may be restricted to certain audiences, such as Sysops, and
  are  usually  of  limited  distribution.  There are international echoes,
  Zone-wide echoes, Net-wide echoes, and others with more specialized  dis-
  tribution.

                      IXGATE ADMINISTRATION AND HISTORY

  The    IXgate     software     was     written     by     Nick     Andrew
  <[e-mail]> (Fidonet 3:713/602) over 1987 - 1991.

  The gateway was first written in 1987, as a project in networking of dis-
  similar  networks. Since that time it has been modified and enhanced many
  times.

  The addressing structures changed once during the period 1988-1989  as  a
  result  of the changing environment within ACSnet, and have changed again
  in late 1991.

  An early version of the IXgate software was released to several interest-
  ed  people  at  the  start  of 1988. It is currently installed on several
  machines, as follows:

  runxtsa.runx.oz.au    is the feeder of USENET News to ...

  Prophet BBS           Receives USENET from Runx & is primary feed to
                        Fidonet and other networks. Returned data from
                        Fidonet (E-mail to Internet and replies in
                        Echomail) is sent to ...

  kralizec.zeta.org.au  Which converts it and sends it out onto the
                        Internet or posts it into USENET.

  socs.uts.edu.au       Is Kralizec's uplink for returned Mail & News
                        and is Kralizec's USENET feeder.

  As you can see, all machines participate in the IXgate workings. However,
  Kralizec  Dialup  Unix  is the main machine for all these. It is Kralizec
  which owns the registered  Internet  domain  which  is  used  in  address
  conversions.  All  E-mail into and out of Internet goes through Kralizec.
  Also, all Echomail messages which are to be posted to USENET pass through
  Kralizec.

                          OBTAINING IXGATE SOFTWARE

  The IXgate software is (C)opyright. However parties wishing to  establish
  alternate  gateways  using  the same software may obtain a licence to the
  source code. Requests will be handled on a case by case basis.

  IXgate is written in portable C code. The code currently runs under Unix,
  MS-DOS  (Turbo-C and MSC) and Minix. Parts of the IXgate may be useful to
  those who need to distribute USENET or Echomail. If the  IXgate  software
  is  used,  USENET  news  can  be  received directly from Kralizec without
  conversion.  This news can be redistributed to  downstream  systems  very
  efficiently  -  much more efficiently than can Echomail, and with reduced
  possibility of duplicates. MS-DOS binaries of the USENET distributor  are
  available upon request.

                     ADDRESSING IN INTERNET AND FIDONET

  This document cannot completely describe Internet or  Fidonet  addressing
  formats.  It is not necessary to know addressing formats in order to par-
  ticipate in echomail or news which has been gated from USENET.

                           Addressing in Internet

  Internet addresses take this general form:
                              [e-mail]

  USER is the user name. It is usually 1 to 16 characters long,  lowercase,
  and can include digits or other characters. There is no standard for user
  names.  Because of the short length of user names in  Unix,  for  example
  Fred   Nurk's  user  name  might  be  'fred',  'nurk',  'fjn',  'buddha',
  's8739221' or others.

  HOST is the name of the host computer which Fred uses. Some  examples  of
  host  names are basser, uowcsa, cyberfrog, aragorn, munnari, runx, etc...
  The host name is restricted in length to about 16 characters.

  DOMAINS describes where the site is in the  Internet  network.  A  domain
  describes  an organisation (say upenn.edu for the University of Pennysyl-
  vania in the USA, and adelaide.edu.au for the University of  Adelaide  in
  Australia).

  The above does not do any justice to the incredible variety of  addresses
  which  the  Internet supports. Suffice to say that the networks out there
  in the real world are quite diverse, and  being  interconnected  as  they
  are,  the complexity of the addresses increases as they pass from network
  to network.

                            Addressing in Fidonet

  Fidonet addresses are in two parts. The first is the user name, which  is
  normally  the  person's first and last name, separated by one space.  The
  second part identifies the Fidonet node he/she uses.  This  is  a  string
  which may look like this:

                                 3:713/606.1

  In this case, the 3: refers to Zone 3, Australia. The 713/606  refers  to
  node number 606 within net number 713.  The .1 refers to point number one
  of that node.

                    Address conversions and sending mail

  Every user of Fidonet has a unique Fidonet address, which is their  first
  and last name and their zone:net/node.point numbers. The IXgate maps this
  address into a unique Internet address which may be used by any member of
  the Internet. The mapping looks like the following:

                 [e-mail]
            e.g., Harry Scum of 3:633/628.4 is represented as:...
                 [e-mail]

  The point number (p4.) and the zone number (z3.) are  not  mandatory.  If
  missing  the zone defaults to Zone 3. The 'zeta.org.au' domain is the re-
  gistered Internet domain of Kralizec. The 'fido'  before  that  indicates
  the  network to which the message will be sent. Possible replacements are
  'gtnet' or 'intlnet', however currently only 'fido' is implemented.

                              Addressing Notes

  Point support is fully implemented. However  Zone  support  is  currently
  minimal.  The  IXgate  should  currently  only be used to send to Fidonet
  nodes in Zone 3.

  The first and last name is separated by a dot '.', not an underline.  The
  underline is passed through without change. Also do not worry about upper
  or lower case on names. The IXgate software capitalizes addresses proper-
  ly  when  sending  into  Fidonet, and converts all addresses to lowercase
  when sending into Internet.

  Note that formerly, addresses used 'fido.oz.au' on the Right  Hand  Side.
  This address format still works for E-mail going from Internet to Fidonet
  but the IXgate software no longer generates it on messages going the oth-
  er  way.  The  change  was  made because the original 'fido.oz.au' domain
  which has been in use for several  years  has  become  inaccessible  from
  ACSnet sites (oz.au is an ACSnet domain, when UTS joined AARNet they left
  ACSnet and thus the domain fido.oz.au remained accessible  from  Internet
  sites, but not from ACSnet).

  When sending mail into the Internet, your sending address is converted by
  the  IXgate  and  appears automagically on the From: line in messages. To
  send a message into the Internet from Fidonet, you send  the  message  to
  713/602  and  in the To part of the message you put the full Internet ad-
  dress of the required destination. For example:

   Command?  s         send mail
   Matrix Address: 713/602
   To: [e-mail]
   Subject: askme

  Note that kludges involving the word 'uucp' and !bang!paths! are not  re-
  quired. In fact, they don't work so don't bother trying. The Internet ad-
  dress format is the globally acceptable one, UUCP bang!paths are a kludge
  and all such nodes should register themselves with the Internet.

  Note also that the length of To names in Fidonet is limited to 35 charac-
  ters. An extensive analysis of 30,000 USENET messages revealed that 99.8%
  of addresses are <= 35 characters long, with the notable exception of:

    - Addresses going through gateways (e.g. X.400)
    - Addresses in Germany (they dislike abbreviating university names)
    - Some addresses at the University of South Australia, where they
      picked particularly silly domains.
      E.G: [e-mail]

  If mail into these domains becomes a requirement for you,  then  you  had
  better join Kralizec Dialup Unix, which provides an interface to Internet
  not limited by the vagiaries of Fidonet. Contact Nick Andrew for info.




















             ECHOMAIL AND NEWS FEEDS INTO MICROCOMPUTER NETWORKS

  IXgate actively gateways most of the 750 USENET newsgroups into  Fidonet.
  These look like Echomail conferences to Fidonet nodes.

                        OBTAINING A FEED FROM IXGATE

  If you are the sysop of a publically available node on some microcomputer
  network,  you  may  obtain a feed from IXgate. In the first instance, you
  should contact Larry Lewis of Prophet (3:713/600).

  Note that some USENET postings may carry Copyright messages and distribu-
  tion  restrictions.  The  IXgate software does what any other USENET site
  does, which is automatically copy and distribute messages.  Any site  may
  archive  and  redistribute  any  message for free. But if there are other
  restrictions, please abide by them as any upstream USENET site would.

  As the IXgate system is bidirectional, certain standards need to be  fol-
  lowed when linking in to conferences supplied by IXgate.

  Rule 1 - No crosslinking, under any circumstances. Other USENET  gateways
  may  provide conferences. No site may receive a feed from both IXgate and
  some other USENET gateway, as the chances for  crosslinking  and  causing
  massive  duplication  are too great. Also, newsgroups gated into Echomail
  are not to be connected to existing Echomail conferences.

  Rule 2 - The set of Echo conferences originating from IXgate  start  with
  the  characters  "IX"  and have similar names to the corresponding USENET
  newsgroups (except uppercase). These Echoes  are  owned  by  IXgate.  For
  Fidonet,  which  contains  the  administrative (not technical) concept of
  "moderated" echoes, these echoes are all to be considered as moderated by
  Nick  Andrew  (Sysop  at 3:713/602).  They are IXgate conferences and not
  Fidonet conferences. IXgate maintains the right to cut feeds, or to "sug-
  gest" that a feed be cut, for abuse of the rules.

  Rule 3 - No aliases. The IXgate software converts  every  proper  Fidonet
  address into an Internet address, perfectly. The conversion is so perfect
  that two people on different networks  can  hold  dialogue  without  ever
  needing  to  know that their messages are going through a gateway. Please
  keep it like that. Use of aliases (especially those containing  @  signs)
  buggers up the conversion, so don't do it.

  Rule 4 - No off-topic messages. Messages entered into IXgate  conferences
  which  are off-topic, trivial, all UPPERCASE or quote too heavily (90% or
  more?) from other messages will be CANCELLED without entering USENET.  No
  notice is currently given of this action.

  Rule 5 - There is no Rule 5.


















                             OFFENSIVE MATERIAL

  USENET users who wish to post material which other people may find offen-
  sive  will  do  so  using a code called Rot13, which substitutes for each
  letter a corresponding letter 13 characters away (a becomes n, b  becomes
  o,  etc). A trivial program will encode/decode these.  USENET newsreading
  software usually does this encoding and decoding for the user  (when  re-
  quested).

                                 OTHER NOTES

  This gateway uses intermittent modem links. Messages are guaranteed to go
  through  eventually  (barring  disaster),  if  addressed properly. If the
  links are down, then the delay is measured in days.  You get no guarantee
  of speed whatsoever.  In general though, transit time through the gateway
  will be between 1 and 2 days. Any node wishing  to  reduce  this  transit
  time can sponsor a daily call to the Internet uplink for $90 p.a.

  When you send a message through the IXgate into Internet, enter  the  To:
  address  with  care.  If  you  mistype  the  address, your mail cannot be
  delivered. In this case, you will receive a bounce  message  from  either
  Kralizec  or whichever Internet system was unable to deliver it. You will
  usually receive a copy of your message also.

  Sometimes a correctly addressed message is bounced by Kralizec.  This  is
  caused  by  some  Fidonet utility which is illegally stripping the To ad-
  dresses on netmail messages passing through it. I don't know which utili-
  ty  it  is.  In any case, one solution to the problem is to send all mes-
  sages to 713/602 either direct  mail,  or  via  Prophet.  713/602  direct
  number is [phone], and it supports all speeds up to V.32 + MNP5.

                                THIS DOCUMENT

  This document is known as IXGATE.DOC. The most recent copy  is  available
  by  file  request from Prophet (713/600), Sentry (711/403), or by sending
  some    sort    of     human-readable     mail     to     Nick     Andrew
  <[e-mail]> or (Sysop of 3:713/602@fidonet).

  The information contained here is subject to  change  and  revision  over
  time.  To  try  and keep users relatively well informed on how to use the
  IXgate software, this document is supplied with an expiry date of:

                              1st April, 1992.

  After that date, please seek the latest version.

   --
   Kralizec Dialup Unix                  Data: [phone], 9600 24hrs 8N1
   Voice: [phone] (1900-2300)     Zeta Microcomputer Software
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